For summer hikers, the trusty old canteen has gone the way of rotary-dial telephones and V-8 car engines. Now we buy bottled water in the supermarket. While plastic bottles can't be slung over the shoulder or attached to the belt nearly as easily as a canteen, they're awfully convenient. Some studies have shown that contrary to intuition, clear plastic keeps the water cooler and breeds less bacteria than either a blanket canteen or a green-plastic belt canteen. Other advantage to commercial bottled water are that the bottle is sealed until used, and the bottle is (theoretically) only used once then discarded.

Here are a few tips, whether you use commercial bottled water when hiking, or a retro-canteen, or a refillable water bottle:

1. When you get home, discard all water that has been in an unsealed, unrefrigerated container for more than a couple hours.
2. If you do re-use a commercial one-time use water bottle, sterilize it first, either by filling with hot water, bleach or soap, then rinsing.
3. Before EVERY hiking trip, empty and similarly sterilize canteens and refillable water bottles prior to filling them with water for the trip.
4. All supplementary water acquired during a hike from natural sources (creek, spring, etc), no matter how apparently pure, should be purified, either with a pump-filter or purification tablets.
5. Water at room temperature or warmer is better for you than cold water because it is absorbed more completely. Cold water tends to go straight to the bladder.
6. You can get extra mileage out of the water you carry, whose main purpose is to prevent or slow dehydration from perspiration, by adding either a little bit (one cup per quart) of a Gatorade-type drink, or by adding one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of sugar per quart. Also, a couple twists of lemon will improve the flavor and help keep your saliva flowing. Bottled water with added electrolyte (salt) and sugar, in amounts much less than that contained in undiluted Gatorade, is now also available.